A couple things I would like to point out from this piece which really jumped out at me. First would be this.

Quote:

Interior Minister Bayan Baqer Solagh has denied claims that he commands death squads targeting the Sunni minority, adding that "only a few detainees were punched and hit" in the prison and that US forces knew of its existence.

This to me seems important. The US forces knew.And this

Quote:

More broadly, Allawi warned of the danger of Iraq disintegrating in chaos, saying: "Iraq is the centrepiece of this region. If things go wrong, neither Europe nor the United States will be safe."

I have been saying this all along but with one slight difference. Iraq has already disintegrated into chaos.

CrimsonEagle

Abuse in Iraq as bad or worse than in Saddam's day: Allawi

LONDON (AFP) - Human rights abuses in Iraq now are as bad, or worse, than they when Saddam Hussein was in power, the nation's first post-Saddam prime minister was quoted as saying.

In an interview with the Observer newspaper in London, Iyad Allawi pointed an accusing finger at the interior ministry, and alleged that "a lot of Iraqis" are being tortured or killed during interrogation.

"People are doing the same as (in) Saddam Hussein's time and worse," said Allawi, an prominent opponent of Saddam who steered the US-backed interim government in Baghdad until April this year.

"It is an appropriate comparison. People are remembering the days of Saddam. These were the precise reasons that we fought Saddam Hussein and now we are seeing the same things."

Allawi's remarks came two weeks after US troops raided a secret prison in Iraq and found about 170 detainees in need of water, food and medical attention.

Graphic pictures released by the Committee of Muslim Scholars, the main Sunni religious organisation in Iraq, showed prisoners with severe burns, massive bruising and welts on their bodies.

US military commanders and diplomats called the abuse "intolerable", pressuring elected prime minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari into ordering a joint Iraqi-US inquiry.

Interior Minister Bayan Baqer Solagh has denied claims that he commands death squads targeting the Sunni minority, adding that "only a few detainees were punched and hit" in the prison and that US forces knew of its existence.

Allawi told The Observer that the interior ministry, though not Solagh, was "at the heart of the matter".

"I am not blaming the minister himself, but the rank and file are behind the secret dungeons and some of the executions that are taking place," he was quoted as saying.

He also said: "We are hearing about secret police, secret bunkers where people are being interrogated."

"A lot of Iraqis are being tortured or killed in the course of interrogations. We are even witnessing Sharia courts based on Islamic law that are trying people and executing them."

He said that if immediate action is not taken, "the disease infecting (the interior ministry) will become contagious and spread to all ministries and structures of Iraq's government".

More broadly, Allawi warned of the danger of Iraq disintegrating in chaos, saying: "Iraq is the centrepiece of this region. If things go wrong, neither Europe nor the United States will be safe."